Paper info

It runs in the family: the acquirer’s impact on the business network upon acquisition of family farms

Simone Guercini and Christina Öberg

The paper was published at the 35th IMP-conference in Paris, France in 2019.

This paper reviews the literature on the acquisitions of family firms and presents two cases of acquisition of family businesses. The review reveals that there is a limited amount of research on acquisitions of family firms, and the business network dimension is basically non-existent. The paper notes that most studies focus on the inertia created as family firms are unwilling to divest, but the literature reveals much less about the process following the divestment decision, the impact of new owners, and the network consequences. Contributions are made to the literature on the network effects of mergers and acquisitions and to the broader acquisition literature, where the main focus is on large-scale, publicly traded firm’s transactions.